Sabres to a 7 year contract worth 50 million dollars. The Buffalo Sabres quickly reacted and scheduled a press conference this afternoon to announce that they had matched the offer made by the Edmonton Oilers.This is just another hit to the continued down fall of the Oilers organization. It isn't a bad thing that they did that, but did K-Lowe actually think he would get Vanek after the Sabres have lost Briere(Flyers), Drury(Rangers) and Zubrus(Devils). Like lets be serious here, Buffalo isn't going on a fire sale like the Predators are doing and with only 31 million locked up in cap space before the match of the offer sheet, the Sabres have money to spend. A update here, the Sabres GM Darcy Reiger actually told Kevin Lowe on a phone call yesterday not to do it saying that they would match anything the Oilers threw at them, so that makes the move even dumber. It is said that the Oilers will probably go after another RFA likes Zach Parise(Devils), Lee Stempniak(Blues), Mike Cammalleri(Kings) or Dustin Penner(Ducks), but all those teams have money to spend if you really look at it too. The Devils just lost the likes of Gomez(Rangers) and Rafalski(Red Wings) and they only have 35 million locked up in cap space with some guys to re-sign but the most expensive guy to re-sign is probably D Paul Martin and you cant think he will make more than 2 million per year, so Parise is out of the question in my mind. Stempniak is the Blues future and even though the Blues way overpaid Kariya they still have roughly 10 million before they hit the cap with really only Stempniak left to sign, so Stempniak is a lost cause too in my mind. Cammalleri is part of the Kings very, very bright future and the Kings are only at 41 million towards the cap with only Cammalleri to really sign, so again a lost cause for the Oilers. Finally with Dustin Penner, yea the Ducks are at 47 million dollars right now but the likely hood of Niedermayer retiring is very likely so that would free up another 6.75 million dollars which would all of a sudden give Brian Burke some cash to spend and with the possibility of Teemu Selanne also retiring and the question marks around the Ducks recent signing of Todd Bertuzzi, Penner is even more valuable to the Ducks. So once again Penner is out of the question in my mind anyways. So if the Oilers are to get any of these player, they are going to have to over-pay them severely.
The only reason I say this is a joke for the Oilers organization is because K-Lowe really doesn't know what he is doing, just like my buddy Will12 said in the previous post. If Buffalo didn't match the Oilers offer sheet earlier this morning the Oilers would have had to give up 4 1ST ROUND DRAFT PICKS. That is alot to give up in my mind for a organization that is re-building and with the likes of John Tavares coming into the up coming drafts, maybe even next year's and the Oilers going to be bottom dwellers of the NHL, the shot of a franchise player is right there. Even if they didn't get Tavares, 3 of those 4 1st round draft picks have the potential to be top 5, so the Oilers have a shot at some potentially good players. Do I care that they Oilers actually I should say K-Lowe are going throw away their future? No, I am loving every minute of it and it just gives me something to rant about when I am talking to Oiler fans or posting on my blog. So Kevin Lowe, keep doing what you are doing because you dont know what your doing and all your gonna do is evenly ruin your crappy team even more. Keep me laughing PLEASE!!!!
If you want to see complete lists of teams pay-rolls and the rest of the RFA's click here.
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